Last week I spoke to Year 6 pupils at Kingswood Preparatory School about the Windrush generation.

The session supported their current study of Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah. The aim was to connect the literature they are reading with the historical experience behind it.

The presentation drew on my own family history. My father travelled from Jamaica to Britain as part of the Windrush generation, following the earlier journey of my grandparents. Their experience provided a starting point for discussing the wider story of post-war migration to Britain.

The pupils were introduced to the Atlantic crossing, the conditions of travel, and the uncertainty of arrival.

Alongside the historical context, I brought a number of family items into the session, including a trunk that had travelled during migration. Objects like this help anchor history in something tangible and allow pupils to picture the journey in practical terms.

Music also formed part of the session. A short piece played on guitar was included to evoke the long evenings at sea described by many who made the crossing.

Later in the day, the class presented a series of drawings of the Empire Windrush crossing the Atlantic, together with a handwritten letter reflecting on what they had learned. Their writing showed a clear understanding of the emotional reality of leaving home and travelling across the ocean towards an uncertain future.

One passage in the letter read:

“Next year’s Year 6 would deeply benefit if you came back.”

The teaching staff were equally generous in their feedback.

Kingswood Preparatory School shared the following testimonial:

“Matt delivered a powerful and engaging assembly for our Year 6 students, who are currently studying Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah in their English lessons. He shared his own family’s history, drawing on the experiences of his father and grandparents as part of the Windrush Generation. The presentation was thoughtfully designed and perfectly pitched to the needs of our students at Kingswood Preparatory School. Through a combination of visual slides, family artefacts, and even a live guitar performance, Matt brought this important chapter of history to life. These elements captured the pupils’ attention and deepened their understanding, leaving them thoroughly engaged, inspired, and motivated by the assembly.”

After sharing the pupils’ drawings online, the National Windrush Museum reshared the images and commented on the quality of the work produced by the class.

The drawings and letter from Year 6 are now on the wall in my office. They are a reminder of how seriously the pupils engaged with the subject and the care they put into their response.

Work like this is becoming an increasingly important part of the TREE Foundation’s work. Alongside preserving archival records of enslavement and emancipation, we are developing ways to bring these histories into classrooms, museums and public spaces. Engagement with younger audiences forms an important part of that effort.

On Thursday 2 April, I will be returning to Beckford’s Tower to deliver a public talk titled Reading the Records of Enslavement.

The evening will focus on original archival documents from the TREE collection. These are administrative records connected to enslavement and emancipation in the Caribbean and Britain. They include valuations, inventories, correspondence, and newspaper material. Each document reflects the systems that sustained enslavement and the structures that followed it.

The aim of the talk is to read these records carefully and in context. When read closely, the contents reveal how language operated within those systems and how responsibility was distributed across institutions and individuals.

The session will include:

• A talk examining selected documents from the archive

• Contextual framing of how the records were produced and used

• An opportunity to view original 18th & 19th century artefacts

• Time for discussion and questions

Beckford’s Tower provides an appropriate setting for this work. As a site closely connected to Britain’s imperial and plantation histories, it allows these records to be examined within a broader architectural and cultural context.

This event is part of TREE’s ongoing public engagement work, bringing archival material into shared spaces where it can be read, considered, and discussed openly.

Details
Thursday 2 April
6pm–8pm
Beckford’s Tower (Bath)
Talk, Q&A, and artefact viewing

Tickets are £10 per person and can be booked via Beckford’s Tower website.

Attendance is limited.

The last newsletter update was in October 25, following the launch of the TREE Foundation at Dyrham Park. Since then, the work has continued, though much of it has taken place away from view.

January feels like the right moment to record what has unfolded since then. Not as a list of outputs, but as a continuation of the responsibility that comes with holding these records.

TREE was founded as a family-led trust. What began as documents kept safe within our family has now entered public life. That transition brings with it obligation, care, and scrutiny. It also brings moments that sit alongside the historical archive and shape the collection as it grows.

A recorded act of responsibility

In November, I was formally recognised by the Royal Humane Society with a Testimonial on Parchment for lifesaving action in 2023.

The recognition relates to an incident in which a woman was at immediate risk of drowning in the River Avon. The circumstances required rapid assessment and decisive intervention.

The Royal Humane Society doesn’t issue testimonials as honours in the conventional sense. They exist as records. They place on file moments where judgement, timing, and responsibility altered an outcome that would otherwise have resulted in loss of life.

Much of the historical material held within the TREE archive documents moments when responsibility was deferred rather than assumed. Lives reduced to valuations. Acts enabled by distance, administration, and process. The Testimonial records a different kind of decision. One where responsibility was taken directly, and action was not displaced.

The decision to incorporate this Testimonial into the wider TREE collection is deliberate. It will sit as a modern civic artefact alongside historical records that speak to power, authority, and responsibility across time.

Working within historic spaces

Later in 2025, TREE undertook public engagement work at Beckford’s Tower, in partnership with Bath Preservation Trust.

Beckford’s Tower is inseparable from wealth generated through colonial and enslavement-era economies. Any engagement within that space carries responsibility. For TREE, this wasn’t about interpretation layered onto the site, but about grounding discussion in original archival material and primary sources.

Evidence in circulation

During this same period, TREE submitted a full evidence pack to the National Trust to support the updating of its Interim Colonialism Report.

Receipt of the material has been confirmed and the review is ongoing. This pace reflects the reality of evidence-led heritage work, where scrutiny matters more than speed.

TREE has also participated in national discussions with academic and heritage partners examining how histories of enslavement are researched, mapped, and communicated in public settings. These conversations aren’t announcements. They’re foundations.

Public conversation

In January, I spoke at a workshop hosted by Heirs of Slavery, using original documents from the TREE archive to explore how historical evidence shapes, and often unsettles, inherited narratives.

Rather than advancing a single interpretation, the session focused on the nature of primary sources themselves: documents produced within systems of power, administration, and control, which record some lives clearly while obscuring others.

This kind of engagement sits at the core of TREE’s work. By prioritising careful handling, context, and accuracy, TREE supports public discussion that remains anchored in the historical record, allowing interpretation to emerge from evidence rather than replace it.

Words Matter

TREE will also commence its Words Matter campaign during early 2026.

This work addresses how language is used in institutional, educational, and public-facing writing about enslavement and colonial history. It’s grounded in UK guidance, archival accuracy, and professional practice.

The campaign doesn’t prescribe identity. It focuses on how organisations and institutions describe people, histories, and evidence in formal contexts.

This work has already informed TREE’s own publications and teaching materials. It will now be shared more openly.

Education in progress

TREE materials continue to be used by secondary school teachers, home educators, and heritage professionals. This engagement has remained steady since October 25 and reflects sustained, practical use rather than one-off interest.

In most cases, the materials are being used to support direct work with original sources. Estate inventories, correspondence, and newspaper records are being read closely, not summarised or simplified, and used to examine how historical systems recorded, categorised, and obscured lives.

The Foundation’s approach remains consistent. Primary sources are placed at the centre of learning, supported by contextual material that aids understanding without replacing direct encounter. This allows learners to grapple with evidence as it exists, including its silences, distortions, and administrative logic.

What follows

Early 2026 will focus on:

• Further public talks and workshops grounded in original archival material

• Continued partnership development with heritage organisations, shaped by shared standards of evidence and care

• Delivery of the Words Matter work in institutional and educational contexts

• Preparation of selected materials for wider public release, where appropriate

Work will continue at a pace set by evidence, capacity, and responsibility.

Closing reflection

The documents at the heart of TREE have travelled a long way. From plantations in the Caribbean, to decades of family custody, to public institutions and active use.

TREE exists to preserve these records and to place them into public circulation where they can be studied, questioned, and understood. This work depends on accuracy, restraint, and responsibility.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support and place trust in this work.

With gratitude,
Matt Johnston
Founder, TREE

treefoundation.org.uk | info@treefoundation.org.uk | Follow us: @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk

2025 marked TREE’s transition from a family archive into a growing national organisation. Our mission remains clear. Make primary sources accessible. Build trust in evidence. Equip the next generation to discuss Britain’s slavery and colonial past with clarity.

TREE is now an active contributor across regional and national heritage networks. This report highlights the achievements, partnerships and public impact of our first full operational year.

2. 2025 Highlights at a Glance

Achievements and Operations
• Seven historical Caribbean newspapers prepared for publication
• Estate documents readied for exhibition
• Gift Aid registration completed
• TREE website expanded as a knowledge hub

Key Deliverables
• TREE launch at Dyrham Park
• Beckford’s Tower learning session
• Archival workshop with Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC)
• Lacock evidence pack
• TES resource released nationally

3. Partnerships and Collaborations

TREE strengthened its position as a trusted partner by working across archives, schools and heritage institutions. Highlights include:
• Public launch and exhibition at Dyrham Park
• Verified evidence submitted to Lacock Abbey
• Learning sessions with Beckford’s Tower
• Policy feedback provided to the Bath Colonialism Action Group
• New education partnership with Kingswood School
• Ongoing collaboration with University of Bristol
• Support from Cyan Ltd and service partners such as Corsham Print, Right Angle Picture Framing and JSD Photography

4. Education and Public Engagement

• Delivered a learning session for young people at Beckford’s Tower
• Developed Windrush workshops based on Desmond Johnston’s lived experience
• Began designing 2026 programmes for School workshops
• Received TREE’s first home education enquiry
• Released TREE’s TES classroom resource, used nationally by teachers
• Published the Words Matter guidance to support accurate and inclusive language

5. Publications and Research

Ledger of Lives made significant progress in 2025, with transcriptions, annotations, timeline development and methodology work completed. Publication is scheduled for December 2026.

TREE also produced two major research outputs:
• The Lacock Abbey Evidence Pack
• Archival guidance relating to the Bath and West Society

6. People at TREE

Youth Leadership

Sunday Johnston played a central role in TREE’s public engagement, co-presenting at events and supporting education development.

Education Lead

Verity Johnston led the design of classroom materials and preparation for future school programmes.

Founder Recognition

Matt Johnston received the Royal Humane Society’s Testimonial on Parchment for lifesaving action. The award has been added to the TREE display collection and forms part of the Foundation’s public biography. This recognition reflects TREE’s ethos of responsibility, service and leadership.

7. Looking Ahead to 2026

TREE will focus on:
• Delivering School sessions
• Developing an exhibition with Bath Abbey
• Strengthening academic and education partnerships
• Expanding TES resources
• Launching the Words Matter campaign
• Scaling public engagement
• Laying foundations for the 2033 bicentenary decade

8. Thank You

TREE began with one family archive.
In 2025 it became a national project rooted in evidence, accessibility and public engagement.

Thank you for supporting TREE in its first full year.
We look forward to continuing this work in 2026.

Special Thanks

A special thank you to JSD Photography.
Jed has documented TREE’s journey throughout 2025, capturing the launch at Dyrham Park, education sessions and ongoing archive work. His contribution has helped shape TREE’s visual story and ensures our work is recorded with care and accuracy.

9. Support TREE’s Work

TREE’s progress in 2025 has been made possible through partnership and shared commitment. As our education programmes expand and preparations begin for future exhibitions, we welcome support from individuals, schools and organisations who share our mission.

As a Gift Aid-registered charity, TREE can increase the value of eligible donations by 25 percent. We also offer sponsorship opportunities for businesses wishing to support education, heritage and public engagement.

If you would like to contribute to TREE’s work or explore partnership options, please contact us via the TREE website.

Donate

When we founded TREE earlier this year (May 25), there was no roadmap, only conviction. Conviction that truth should be preserved, and that even small archives can hold national significance.

In less than five months, we went from an idea on paper to a registered charity (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) with trustees, partners, and a public launch inside a National Trust property.

That pace was not driven by luck. It was driven by belief and by community.

How TREE Began

TREE started with a handful of fragile family documents, records of enslavement, compensation, and the people whose lives were written in another hand.

At first, the goal was simple: to understand what we had. As the research deepened, the responsibility grew. These were not just personal artefacts; they were national evidence.

Within months, what began as a private archive became a public commitment to preserve, interpret, and share these records with honesty and care.

From Idea to Institution in Five Months

Becoming a charity in five months sounds impossible, but it happened because people stepped up. Trustees, advisors, designers, educators, and friends all volunteered their time, expertise, and energy.

We built the foundation while also preparing our first exhibition. By September 2025, TREE launched publicly at Dyrham Park, displaying original documents alongside newly written educational materials. That event was not the end of a process; it was the beginning of a movement.

By the Numbers

In just five months, TREE had:

• Registered as a UK charity (CIO)

• Held one public launch (Dyrham Park, September 2025)

• Created an exhibition

• Conserved multiple historical artefacts

• Released two education packs on TES

• Received its first corporate donation

• Confirmed its next exhibition (2026)

Every figure represents time, trust, and teamwork.

Community Is the Strength

Every milestone came from community, not capital.

• National Heritage Organisations opened their doors to partnership.

• Local businesses offered sponsorship and advice.

• Teachers and home educators reached out for materials.

• Families and friends donated time, ideas, and encouragement.

TREE stands today because people believed in what it represents: remembrance and truth, and because they acted.

Community is not a nice-to-have; it is the infrastructure.

Why This Matters Now

Across Britain, conversations about history are shifting. TREE’s mission is to make sure they are informed as well as heartfelt, grounded in evidence rather than opinion.

That is why we digitise, transcribe, and interpret the documents that shaped lives and legacies. These records reveal how policies were written, wealth was transferred, and human stories were silenced. Our role is to make those truths visible again.

What We’ve Learned

1. Rejections come before recognition.
Our first funding bids failed. Each “no” taught us to define our purpose more clearly and to speak our mission more directly.

2. Build before you are ready.
If we had waited for permission, TREE would not exist. We built in motion, writing policies, designing panels, and refining work all at once.

3. Show your workings.
We made a deliberate choice to be transparent, sharing budgets, and even the setbacks. The goal is not polish; it is trust.

4. Keep purpose over perfection.
TREE is evidence-led. We do not polarise or dramatise; we document and interpret. That principle guides every exhibition, publication, and partnership.

Looking Ahead

TREE’s next chapter focuses on sustainability and reach, expanding our teaching resources, preparing the future exhibitions (2026), and deepening partnerships with heritage and education networks across the UK.

We are now looking to connect with teachers, researchers, sponsors, and community groups who share this belief that evidence can change understanding. If that is you, reach out. TREE’s growth has always begun with a conversation.

We still remember holding those first pages, ink fading and edges breaking, and realising that silence is also a form of inheritance. TREE exists to make sure that inheritance becomes knowledge.

1. Image of the Original Document

Read more

When we opened the doors at Dyrham Park for the TREE Foundation’s launch, it felt like something that had lived in our family for generations was finally being shared with the world.

What began as a handful of old documents, folded, faded, and kept safe by my father, has become a public foundation dedicated to truth, remembrance, and education.

Together with Sunday, who co-founded TREE, we stood alongside the National Trust, Bath Preservation Trust, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Deptford People’s Heritage Museum and many others who understand that history is only powerful when it is shared honestly.

“We wanted people to see that these records still speak to us today.”
- Sunday Johnston

Launch Day: A Moment of Beginning

The TREE Foundation officially came to life inside the historic walls of Dyrham Park, a National Trust estate that carries its own deep connections to the colonial era. The setting could not have been more fitting - a place where the past is visible in architecture, land, and lineage.

Guests arrived to the sound of live strings, greeted by the sight of seven framed original artefacts displayed on easels, each paired with a full-size interpretation panel explaining its story and historical context. The atmosphere was thoughtful but hopeful; a space where truth, care, and curiosity could sit together.

Educators, curators, historians, and supporters from across the region joined us to see these records up close, some for the first time outside a private family collection. Conversations moved easily between reflection and research, with questions about how to teach this history to children, how to preserve fragile paper, and how to speak about injustice without losing humanity.

Sunday stood alongside me to open the event, sharing why this history matters to her generation and why it must be told with honesty and courage. Together, we introduced TREE’s mission to preserve, interpret, and make accessible the records of enslavement and emancipation for all.

The afternoon closed with quiet reflection and an unmistakable sense that something new had begun.

What is TREE?

The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) is a UK-based heritage foundation that preserves, interprets, and digitises original slavery-era documents from the Caribbean and Britain.

TREE’s work began with a family archive, handed down across generations, and has grown into a public trust dedicated to research, education, and remembrance. Our mission is to make these records accessible, understood, and respectfully presented, turning private evidence into shared history.

We use original documents to tell the human stories behind the systems of enslavement and compensation that shaped Britain’s past. Through exhibitions, publications, and teaching materials, TREE helps audiences confront history with clarity and empathy.

At the heart of our work is a simple belief: records of pain can become tools of progress when they are preserved with care and studied with honesty.

Archive in Focus: The Culloden Estate Inventory, 1817

Content note: The following section includes historical material relating to enslavement and the valuation of human lives. Reader discretion is advised.

The Inventory and Appraisement of the Culloden Estate, Tobago (1817).
It lists enslaved people by name, trade, and assigned value. Beneath the handwriting lies an economic system that reduced people to numbers but also preserved their names for future generations to rediscover.

Carpenters, watchmen, field workers, and children appear in the same column as livestock and tools. The neat handwriting and careful sums remind us that these were official ledgers of human lives, treated as property within an economic system.

For many of those named, this may be the only surviving record of their existence. Their identities, once recorded for profit, are now preserved for remembrance.

TREE’s transcription work is bringing these names back into view, making it possible for researchers, teachers, and descendants to read them again after more than two centuries.

This document sits at the heart of Ledger of Lives, the forthcoming book that will publish these records in full, alongside commentary and interpretation.

Through TREE’s work, those names are being read again.

Education in Progress

TREE’s education packs for KS2, KS3 and KS4 are being developed in partnership with teachers and exam specialists. Each pack connects students with real primary sources, helping them explore Britain’s role in enslavement, abolition, and remembrance with care and confidence.

If you are a teacher or school leader who would like to bring these materials into your classroom, you can view a sample and download directly from our TES page.

Visit TREE on TES

Register your school’s interest here

What’s Next

The launch at Dyrham Park was only the first step. TREE is now moving into a new phase of work that will bring these records to wider audiences, both in print and in person.

Over the coming months, we will be:

• Continuing the transcription and interpretation of key documents from the TREE Archive

• Developing new education resources in partnership with teachers and historians

• Preparing for a series of public talks and exhibitions that will connect local heritage with global history

Behind the scenes, we are also working on Ledger of Lives, the forthcoming publication that will bring the full TREE archive together in one place for the first time.

Each project we undertake builds toward one aim - to ensure that the people whose lives were once reduced to lines of ink are remembered as individuals, not as entries in a ledger.

Please get in touch to find out more

Partner with TREE

TREE works with organisations that want to make a lasting contribution to truth, education, and remembrance.

Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnerships, sponsorship, and collaborative projects, companies can help:

• Fund the preservation and digitisation of original slavery-era records

• Support educational resources that reach classrooms across the UK

• Co-host exhibitions and public programmes that open up honest conversations about Britain’s colonial history

Our partners do not just donate; they stand beside us in reshaping how heritage is told and understood.

Get in touch for further details about our Sponsorship and CSR Pack: info@treefoundation.org.uk

Closing Reflection

Standing in front of the documents at Dyrham Park, I was struck by how far they had travelled - from plantations in the Caribbean to a public gallery where they could finally be seen and understood.

For years, these records existed in our family’s care, protected but perhaps not knowing that one day they would form the foundation of something larger. Sunday stood beside me at the launch, reminding everyone that this work is not only about the past, but about how her generation chooses to inherit history: openly, honestly, and with purpose.

TREE was created to bridge those generations. It exists so that truth can move from silence to study, from family memory to public record.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us at the beginning. The journey from remembrance to restoration has started, and there is much more to come.

With gratitude,
Matt Johnston
Founder, TREE

Stay Connected

treefoundation.org.uk
Instagram: @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk
Linkedin: tree-foundation-uk

© TREE Foundation 2025 | Registered Charity No. 1215170 |

Between 1811 and 1821, Charles Gordon Gray served as a Vice President of the Bath and West of England Society. He appeared regularly in meeting minutes, attended general assemblies, and received premiums for livestock exhibits. At the Society’s Annual Meeting of 16 December 1823, the minutes recorded his death and elected replacements to fill the Vice President vacancies.

At the same time, Gray was active in Jamaica as an appraiser and attorney for estates built on the labour of enslaved people. Archival records confirm his dual position in both Somerset civic life and Caribbean plantation administration.

Vice President of the Bath & West

Gray is listed as Vice President in the Transactions of the Bath and West of England Society throughout the 1810s. Attendance lists show “C. G. Gray Esq., V.P.” at meetings in 1812. Premium lists also record awards for livestock entries, including breeding ewes.

At the Society’s Annual Meeting of 16 December 1823, the minutes state:

“The Vice Presidents were re-elected and Philip John Miles Esq. and Eleazar Pickwick Esq. unanimously chosen to supply the vacancies caused by the death of Charles Gordon Gray Esq. and John Webb Weston Esq.”

This confirms Gray’s death before December 1823 and fixes his period of service.

Cardiff Estate, St Ann, Jamaica

Among TREE’s archive is a one-page appraisal headed:

“Appraisement of Cardiff Negroes & Stock October 1814 by Charles Gray Esq.”

The document lists men, women and children by name, each with a monetary value. Examples include Allen (£100), Charlotte (£90), Harry (£60), Kitty (£60), and Juno (£30). A subtotal of £2,570 is entered for enslaved people, set alongside valuations of livestock, cattle and equipment.

This places Gray in the role of valuing human lives as property, two thirds of the assessed estate wealth, at the same time he held office in Somerset.

Estate Roles Recorded in Jamaica

The Legacies of British Slavery project confirms Gray’s wider involvement in estate management in St James, Jamaica. Entries record him acting as attorney for several estates:

• Irwin Estate, St James: “In the possession of Charles Gordon Gray as Attorney to Thomas K. Hall” (1820–1821).

• Kirkpatrick Hall Estate, St James: “In the possession of Charles Gordon Gray as Attorney” with 20 enslaved people purchased in 1819.

• Stapleton Pen, St James: “In the possession of Charles Gordon Gray as Attorney” (1820–1821).

• Industry Estate, St James: referenced in litigation, Gray v Hinde.

These records demonstrate Gray’s direct engagement in plantation administration during the same years that Bath & West listed him as Vice President.

Silence in the Bath & West Record

Across Bath & West journals and minutes between 1811 and 1822, Gray is presented only as a Vice President, exhibitor, and prize winner. No mention is made of his roles in Jamaican estates or his 1814 appraisal of enslaved people.

This silence illustrates how the Society recorded civic respectability while omitting the colonial origins of some of its members’ wealth and authority.

Why This Matters Today

The records show how Charles Gordon Gray’s two worlds intersected. In Jamaica, he was responsible for valuing enslaved people and managing estates. In Somerset, he was celebrated as a Vice President and exhibitor in one of Britain’s leading agricultural societies. The Bath & West journals recorded only one of those worlds.

For TREE, the relevance lies in how institutions today choose to address these histories. By bringing forward archival evidence, TREE is working with organisations to:

• Acknowledge connections between civic prestige and slavery wealth.

• Ensure transparency in how institutional histories are presented.

• Develop education resources that place these stories in classrooms.

• Support inclusive conversations in a sector that has been repeatedly described as one of the least diverse in the UK. Estimates suggest that people of colour make up only around 1% of the UK agricultural workforce, despite forming a much larger share of the population (Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, 2021). Initiatives such as AgDiversity continue to highlight low representation across ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation (Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, 2022).

By surfacing hidden histories and recognising the global contributions and costs that shaped institutions like the Bath & West, TREE aims to help foster more inclusive conversations in a sector where they have too often been absent.

This research is not about diminishing the Bath & West’s role in agricultural history. It is about setting it in its full context and ensuring that the lives of those appraised at Cardiff in 1814 are not forgotten.

References

Bath & West Society

• Transactions of the Bath and West of England Society, General Meetings (1811–1821); Annual Meeting, 16 Dec 1823 (minutes). (38/1/4)

• Premium lists including awards to Charles Gordon Gray.(38/1/4 and 38/9/1)

TREE Archive

• Appraisement of Cardiff Negroes & Stock, October 1814, by Charles Gray Esq.

UCL Legacies of British Slavery

• Irwin Estate, St James (1820–1821).

• Kirkpatrick Hall Estate, St James (1819–1821).

• Stapleton Pen, St James (1820–1821).

• Industry Estate litigation, Gray v Hinde.

Sector Diversity References

• Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, Encouraging and Supporting Black and People of Colour in Agriculture(2021).

• Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, AgDiversity Programme (2022).

About TREE
The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) is dedicated to uncovering, preserving, and interpreting archival records of enslavement and emancipation. Our mission is to connect these histories to the present, ensuring they are accessible for education, heritage, and public understanding.

This article is part of TREE’s research series on slavery connections in Britain’s regional institutions.

Prepared by Matt Johnston, Founder & Trustee of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE).

treefoundation.org.uk | info@treefoundation.org.uk | @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk

Operation Legacy was the British government’s programme of colonial record destruction during the late 1950s to 1970s. It was organised through the Colonial and Foreign Offices, endorsed at Cabinet level, and carried out by governors across the empire. The deliberate narrowing of archives left deep silences in the historical record. Against this backdrop, TREE’s collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents demonstrates the value of what survived and the importance of bringing suppressed histories back into the open.

What Operation Legacy Was

Between the late 1950s and the 1970s, as Britain prepared to grant independence to colonies across Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, officials oversaw the destruction or removal of thousands of documents. Records that might expose human rights abuses, mistreatment of local populations, or policies deemed damaging to Britain’s international reputation were targeted.

This was not the action of individuals working in isolation. It was an organised programme run by the Colonial Office, later absorbed into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). It was endorsed at ministerial level and implemented by governors, colonial secretaries, and senior civil servants in each territory.[1]

How the Programme Was Organised

• Policy direction: The Colonial Office issued secret circulars with precise instructions on which records should be destroyed.[2]

• Selection process: Documents were categorised. Material that might “embarrass Her Majesty’s Government,” or “be interpreted unfavourably by successor governments,” was earmarked for destruction.

• Local implementation: Colonial governors convened committees to supervise the “weeding” of archives. They were required to produce certificates confirming destruction had taken place.[3]

• Oversight: The FCO in London retained lists of categories and monitored compliance. Some files were secretly shipped back to Britain for storage at Hanslope Park, later revealed as the “migrated archives.”[4]

The process itself was bureaucratic. The destruction of evidence was logged, signed off, and certified, leaving behind what has been described as an “archive of erasure.” The very act of concealing colonial violence produced its own paper trail.

Where Accountability Sat

Operation Legacy was carried out in the name of the Crown, but responsibility lay firmly with the elected government of the day.

• Government ministers: The Colonial Office, and later the FCO, directed the policy. This was endorsed at Cabinet level. Responsibility spanned successive administrations of both major parties, including Conservative governments under Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, and Edward Heath, as well as Labour governments under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

• Foreign Office oversight: Once the Colonial Office merged into the FCO, responsibility for safeguarding reputational interests transferred to senior officials there.

• Governors: Each colonial governor was personally responsible for certifying compliance in their territory. Certificates were signed to confirm destruction.[5]

• The monarchy: The programme did not require Royal Assent. As head of state, Elizabeth II was formally the sovereign in whose name the policy was enacted. In practice, constitutional convention meant she did not direct government policy. The Queen may have been generally aware that sensitive files were being withheld from successor governments, but she had no executive power to block ministerial decisions.

TREE’s position is clear: Operation Legacy was a ministerial policy, designed and carried out by government departments, implemented locally by governors, and justified as protecting the Crown.

The Consequences of Erasure

This destruction left deep gaps in the archives of former colonies. In many cases the new independent governments received only fragments of administrative history, carefully filtered by the departing power. For researchers today, this means the story of colonial rule is incomplete.

The silences are not neutral. They are evidence of deliberate erasure. To study these gaps is to see what Britain did not wish successor states to know, and what it did not wish history to record.[6]

Partial Disclosure and Limited Redress

• The migrated archives: In 2011, during a High Court case brought by Mau Mau veterans, the government admitted that thousands of colonial-era files had been secretly held at Hanslope Park. Around 20,000 were subsequently transferred to The National Archives between 2012 and 2013. These cover 37 former colonies.[7]

• Kenya compensation: In 2013, the UK government issued a statement of regret for torture during the Mau Mau Emergency and agreed a £19.9 million compensation package for over 5,000 victims. Then Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed “sincere regret” in Parliament.[8]

• Beyond Kenya: No equivalent apology or reparations have been extended to other colonies. The disclosure of the migrated archives was a partial restoration of openness, but the majority of documents incinerated under Operation Legacy remain permanently lost.

TREE’s Archive in Contrast

Against this backdrop of systematic removal, the survival of certain records takes on heightened significance. The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) holds a collection of documents that escaped both the passage of centuries and the selective destruction of more recent times.

Our living archive includes:

• An estate inventory from Tobago (1773), listing enslaved people alongside property and livestock.

• A compensation counter-claim from the 1830s, revealing the financial disputes that followed emancipation.

• Caribbean newspapers such as the Grenada Gazette (1814) and the Tobago Chronicle (1842), which preserve accounts of law, commerce, and society in the period after emancipation.

Unlike the records selected for destruction under Operation Legacy, these documents were not filtered to protect reputations. They record in unvarnished terms the economic, social, and legal structures of their time.

Bringing silenced histories back into the open

By transcribing, annotating, and publishing these materials, TREE is restoring access to conversations that were once deliberately suppressed. Estate inventories show how human lives were catalogued and treated as property. Compensation records reveal the scale of financial interest tied to enslavement, and the extent to which those interests continued after abolition. Newspapers document how colonial societies policed, legislated, and justified their actions.

Each document added to the public domain helps fill the gaps left by deliberate erasure. They allow researchers, educators, and communities to interrogate history on their own terms, rather than through the narrow lens left by official censorship.

The benefit of preservation today

Bringing these records back into the open does more than safeguard the past. It:

• Strengthens the base for education, research, and public history.

• Restores visibility to those whose lives were reduced to numbers, assets, or disputes.

• Provides successor generations with a fuller account of the structures that shaped their histories.

• Counters the precedent of concealment by showing that archives can be shared openly rather than restricted.

In this sense, TREE’s work is not only about keeping rare documents safe, but about challenging the culture of forgetting that Operation Legacy embodied.

Why This Matters Now

Operation Legacy was intended to protect Britain’s reputation at the moment empire receded. Its effect has been to narrow the historical account. TREE’s work takes the opposite course: safeguarding, openness, and accessibility.

Each document transcribed, digitised, and placed in the public domain expands the record available for research and education, pushing back against enforced forgetting. The survival of collections such as TREE’s is critical. They offer insight into systems of ownership, finance, and power that shaped lives and continue to shape legacies.

Where the state once sought to erase, institutions like TREE work to protect and share. This ensures that silenced histories return to view, and that the historical account endures.

References

1. Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (London: Bodley Head, 2022).

2. David M. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005).

3. The Guardian, “Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes,” 18 April 2012.

4. The National Archives (UK), “Colonial administration records (migrated archives),” 2012 guidance.

5. Hanslope Park disclosures, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2011.

6. Elkins, Legacy of Violence; Anderson, Histories of the Hanged.

7. The National Archives, “Migrated archives overview,” 2013.

8. UK Parliament, Hansard, Foreign Secretary William Hague statement on Mau Mau compensation, 6 June 2013.

About TREE

The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) is dedicated to uncovering, preserving, and interpreting archival records of enslavement and emancipation. Our mission is to connect these histories to the present, ensuring they are accessible for education, heritage, and public understanding.

This article is part of TREE’s Lacock Papers series (1 of 7). The full series explores how slavery wealth entered the Talbot family line at Lacock Abbey.

This research note was prepared by Matt Johnston, Founder & Trustee of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE).

treefoundation.org.uk | info@treefoundation.org.uk | Follow us: @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk

Henry Davenport’s portrait hangs in Lacock Abbey. The National Trust caption describes him as the son of Elizabeth Talbot, married first to Mary Chardin and second to Barbara Ivory, with a note that his son Rev. William Davenport later inherited Lacock through marriage. It does not mention Henry’s role in the East India Company, nor the archival records that connect him to the trade in enslaved children and women.

Setting the context

Henry Davenport (1677–1731) rose to a senior position in the East India Company. In 1713 he was appointed Deputy Governor of Fort St David, a fortified trading settlement on the Coromandel Coast of south-east India, near the town of Cuddalore.

Fort St David was one of the Company’s principal bases. From here the Company managed the export of Indian textiles, diamonds, and spices. Archival records also show that the Company was involved in systems of forced labour and enslavement. Fort St David was second only to Fort St George at Madras (now Chennai) in importance, and disputes over its governorship affected the Company’s operations in the early eighteenth century. Davenport’s appointment indicates his status within this structure.

What was the East India Company?

The East India Company was a powerful English trading company founded in 1600. It began as a group of merchants given a royal charter to trade in spices, textiles, and other goods from Asia.

By the early eighteenth century it controlled ports, armies, and territories across India and beyond. The Company profited from goods such as tea, cotton, and diamonds, and also from systems of forced labour and slavery that supported its operations.

By the mid-eighteenth century, it had become one of the most influential organisations in the world, shaping British wealth, politics, and empire.

Archival evidence

The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC) holds Davenport’s surviving papers in the Lacock archive. These include:

• 2664/3/2D/2/96: Account book, 1711–1714. Records the sale of four enslaved boys and one woman in July 1711.

• 2664/3/2D/1/13: Bonds and receipts. Includes payment for a “slave boy” named Dick (1713) and a “slave wench” named Diana (1714).

• 2664/3/2D/2/73: Bills of lading, including a bill of sale for a “slave wench.” Bills of lading were legal shipping receipts that detailed cargo, ownership, and destination.

• 2664/3/2B/135: Letters to Henry Davenport and his associates, recording his role in diamond markets and shipping.

• 2664/3/2B/158: Appointment as Deputy Governor of Fort St David in 1713. Also includes Davenport’s own account of his “adventures abroad,” listing voyages to India, Batavia, and China, with one voyage described as being “for a slave wench.”

These records indicate that Davenport was directly engaged in East India Company trade, including transactions in enslaved people.

Networks and partners

Davenport’s papers link him to a number of prominent merchants and officials: Thomas Pitt, Governor of Madras; Bernard Benyon, a senior East India Company figure; and Francis Salvador, part of an Anglo-Jewish merchant family later associated with colonial slavery in the Americas.

The documents also record connections to Charles Newman of Corsham, Wiltshire, identified as a slave owner. Newman’s appearance in Davenport’s bills of lading illustrates how regional elites in Wiltshire were connected to colonial and slavery-linked ventures.

Why this matters for Lacock

The National Trust’s online caption for Henry Davenport (NT 996341) presents him through his marriages and descendants, noting his links to the Ivory and Talbot families. It does not include his East India Company role, his appointment at Fort St David, or the archival records documenting his involvement in the trade in enslaved people.

As a result, visitors viewing the portrait encounter only part of Davenport’s story. The current interpretation emphasises genealogical connections while leaving out the wider context of his mercantile activities.

TREE’s interpretation

The records at WSHC establish Henry Davenport’s activities clearly. He was a senior East India Company officer and a merchant involved in diamonds, spices, textiles, and in the trade of enslaved children and women. His partnerships connected him both to Company officials in India and to figures such as Charles Newman in Wiltshire.

The portrait of Davenport at Lacock Abbey is therefore a significant object. It represents not only a family ancestor but also a link to wider histories of colonial trade and slavery. For interpretation at Lacock to be comprehensive, this context should be presented to the public. TREE’s role is to surface archival evidence of this kind so that it informs public understanding of how slavery wealth became part of country house history, inheritance, and local communities.

This article is part of TREE’s Lacock Papers series. The full series explores how slavery wealth entered the Talbot family line at Lacock Abbey.

This research note was prepared by Matt Johnston, Founder & Trustee of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE).

treefoundation.org.uk | info@treefoundation.org.uk | Follow TREE: @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk

In 2020 the National Trust published its Colonialism and Historic Slavery report. For Lacock Abbey, the report highlighted John Rock Grosett MP, a tenant in the 1820s who received compensation for enslaved people in Jamaica. This narrative positioned slavery wealth as something that arrived at Lacock from outside the family, through a temporary tenant.

Research undertaken by the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) now suggests a broader and more complex picture. Archival evidence preserved at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre shows that slavery-linked wealth entered the Talbot family line itself. This connection stretches back more than a century before Grosett, through the Davenport family, whose papers reveal direct involvement in the East India Company’s trade in enslaved people.

The Davenport line did not remain separate. Through a sequence of marriages with the Talbots and the Ivory family, Davenport wealth became intertwined with Lacock Abbey’s inheritance. By the early nineteenth century, William Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography, was an heir not only to Lacock but also to financial resources rooted in his great-grandfather Henry Davenport’s mercantile career.

The archival evidence is clear. Henry Davenport’s account book records the sale of four enslaved boys and one woman in July 1711. His bonds and estate papers include receipts for a “slave boy” named Dick and a “slave wench” named Diana in 1713 and 1714. Bills of lading from the same period preserve a further bill of sale for a “slave wench” as well as financial dealings with senior East India Company officials such as Thomas Pitt and Bernard Benyon. Together, these documents confirm that Davenport’s wealth derived in part from direct involvement in the trade in enslaved people.

This wealth was not lost to the family. Henry Davenport married Barbara Ivory, linking his descendants directly to the Talbots of Lacock. Their son, the Reverend William Davenport (1725–1781), married Jane Ivory Talbot. When John Talbot died without an heir in 1778, the Davenports inherited Lacock. From that point, Davenport capital and Talbot landholding were joined.

The inheritance continued into the nineteenth century. In 1821 William Henry Fox Talbot received more than £10,500 from the Davenport side of his family, equivalent to nearly one million pounds today. Trust papers confirm that this inheritance was managed by trustees including the Earl of Ilchester, preserving the value of capital originally generated in the early eighteenth century through East India Company ventures that included enslaved people.

The portraits hanging in Lacock Abbey reflect this history, though their captions do not. The portrait of Henry Davenport (1677–1731) currently highlights his marriages but makes no mention of his role in the East India Company or his documented involvement in the slave trade. The portrait of Reverend William Davenport (1725–1781) describes his clerical career and the inheritance of Lacock “by chance,” overlooking the reality that his position was built on the consolidation of Davenport wealth with the Talbot and Ivory families.

Taken together, the documents and the portraits tell a story that has been absent from public interpretation. Lacock Abbey was not only the home of photography. It was also a site where slavery-derived wealth was embedded, transmitted, and displayed across generations. TREE’s research adds this layer to the narrative, placing archival evidence into dialogue with family history and material culture.

References

• Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Lacock Abbey Collection:

  • 2664/3/2D/2/96 (Henry Davenport account book, 1711–1714)

  • 2664/3/2D/1/13 (Bonds and receipts referencing enslaved people, 1710–1730)

  • 2664/3/2D/2/73 (Bills of lading and bill of sale for “slave wench,” 1706–1716)

  • 2664/3/2B/135 (Letters to Henry Davenport at Fort St George, 1708–1713)

  • 2664/3/2B/158 (Letters and accounts, including Deputy Governorship, 1711–1729)

  • 2664/1/2A/577, 2664/1/2A/576 (Fox Talbot inheritance records, 1821)

• National Trust Collections: Portrait of Henry Davenport (object 996341); Portrait of Rev. William Davenport (object 996333).

• National Trust, Colonialism and Historic Slavery Report (2020).

About TREE

The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) is dedicated to uncovering, preserving, and interpreting archival records of enslavement and emancipation. Our mission is to connect these histories to the present, ensuring they are accessible for education, heritage, and public understanding.

This article is part of TREE’s Lacock Papers series. The full series explores how slavery wealth entered the Talbot family line at Lacock Abbey.

This research note was prepared by Matt Johnston, Founder & Trustee of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE).

treefoundation.org.uk | info@treefoundation.org.uk | Follow us: @t.r.e.e.foundation_uk